WI: Project A119 went ahead.

[Alternatehistorybuff5341]

So while browsing online, I came across this little tidbit of historical trivia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_A119

Project A119, also known as "A Study of Lunar Research Flights", was a top-secret plan developed in the late 1950s by the United States Air Force. The aim of the project was to detonate a nuclear bomb on the Moon to boost public morale in the United States after the Soviet Union took an early lead in the Space Race. The existence of the project was revealed in 2000 by a former executive at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Leonard Reiffel, who led the project in 1958. A young Carl Sagan was part of the team responsible for predicting the effects of a nuclear explosion in low gravity.

The project was cancelled due to three reasons. One: Landing a man on the moon would be cheaper and boost morale just as well. Two: Fear that a failed launch could result in the detonation of said weapon. Three: The fear of nuclear fallout reaching the Earth's atmosphere or contaminating the moon's surface beyond repair.

But what if this project had gone through? What if the United States detonated a nuclear weapon on the moon for both scientific research and to boost American morale? What would be the ramifications?

 

[LostCosmonaut]

So while browsing online, I came across this little tidbit of historical trivia.



The project was cancelled due to three reasons. One: Landing a man on the moon would be cheaper and boost morale just as well. Two: Fear that a failed launch could result in the detonation of said weapon. Three: The fear of nuclear fallout reaching the Earth's atmosphere or contaminating the moon's surface beyond repair.

But what if this project had gone through? What if the United States detonated a nuclear weapon on the moon for both scientific research and to boost American morale? What would be the ramifications?

The moon gets a nice bit of localized radioactive contamination. We might get some more data on the composition of the lunar regolith from analyzing the dust that was kicked up, although I'm not sure if science was advanced enough to do spectroscopy like that. If we were able to get data on the composition of lunar dust, it might be useful in planning the Apollo landings.

 

[Beedok]

We start nuking other things out in space for fun. It becomes the new system for disarmament.

 

[modelcitizen]

Benevolent overseer alien race is baffled, angered, then saddened, and rights to earth are traded to malevolent reality tv-show producing alien race for several rocks.

 

[Beedok]

Benevolent overseer alien race is baffled, angered, then saddened, and rights to earth are traded to malevolent reality tv-show producing alien race for several rocks.

Sounds like much more fun too me.

Bring on the fame!

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

The project was cancelled due to three reasons. One: Landing a man on the moon would be cheaper and boost morale just as well. Two: Fear that a failed launch could result in the detonation of said weapon. Three: The fear of nuclear fallout reaching the Earth's atmosphere or contaminating the moon's surface beyond repair.

1) Cheaper? ??? what? an abomb on the moon would be incredibly much cheaper than a manned landing. a) no life support needed, b) no lift off from the moon needed, c) no reentry into the earth's atmosphere, let alone from escape velocity, d) heck, you don't even need to land the sucker, just have a radar altimeter set it off just above the surface.

2) well, that's a bit of a problem. Failsafing the warhead wouldn't be terribly difficult, IMO. Just have dampers inside that are pulled out only on achieving zero g, say.

3) Fall out? reaching the earth? In any measurable quantities? ??? considering the number of tests conducted on earth, and the amount of fallout directly released, this is risible.


So, given the level of uselessness of the article you got your information from, I'd not trust a single word of anything else it said. Sorry.

 

[The Red]

The planned warheads yield would be a fraction of Little Boy or Fat Man, and a party popper compared to modern H-Bombs. Even a groundburst wouldn't contaminate the Lunar surface too much. Although it also wouldn't provide much of a spectacle, the advantages would be mainly scientific not propaganda.

 

[EnglishCanuck]

Other than needlessly rattling up the Soviets (probably leading to heightened world tensions) causing her allies to question her sanity and generally being a bit if a dick move, the US has no benefits from the project whatsoever.

That a bunch of politicians, military officers, and scientists, conceived this idea, let alone actually thought it would be a good one, baffles me to this day.

 

[iddt3]

Other than needlessly rattling up the Soviets (probably leading to heightened world tensions) causing her allies to question her sanity and generally being a bit if a dick move, the US has no benefits from the project whatsoever.

That a bunch of politicians, military officers, and scientists, conceived this idea, let alone actually thought it would be a good one, baffles me to this day.

I love the logic at work here. "The Reds have a satellite in space eh? Well we'll NUKE THE MOON! That'll learn 'em!"

 

[Beedok]

I love the logic at work here. "The Reds have a satellite in space eh? Well we'll NUKE THE MOON! That'll learn 'em!"

I think it was more "Nukes! They're awesome! Let's toss some at something!"

The soviets were an afterthought.

 

[asnys]

I love the logic at work here. "The Reds have a satellite in space eh? Well we'll NUKE THE MOON! That'll learn 'em!"

I'm not sure if this is directly connected to A119, but Edward Teller had earlier proposed nuking the Moon as part of a general effort to find peaceful uses for nuclear explosives. The aim of this more general project was, in large part, to try to soften the image of the hydrogen bomb, since public agitation against atmospheric testing was growing; as part of this they brainstormed all kinds of weird uses for nuclear explosives, of which nuking the moon was by no means the strangest (although it was pretty far up there). I don't know if Teller's proposal was what led to A119, but that might explain part of it.